Google 'experiment' crossbreeds Python with C++

Multi-core coding on the Go

Google has open-sourced an experimental programming language that attempts to crossbreed a dynamic web-happy language like Python with a compiled language like C++.

"There is a growing rebellion against cumbersome type systems like those of Java and C++, pushing people towards dynamically typed languages such as Python and JavaScript, [but] some fundamental concepts such as garbage collection and parallel computation are not well supported by popular systems languages," the company says.

"We believe it's worth trying again with a new language, a concurrent, garbage-collected language with fast compilation."

Dubbed Go, the new language was unveiled today via the Google Open Source blog. "Want to write a server with thousands of communicating threads? Want to spend less time reading blogs while waiting for builds? Feel like whipping up a prototype of your latest idea? Go is the way to go!"

Google says the language is type safe and memory safe, and it's specifically designed for building software that runs on multi-core machines. Systems and servers are written as lightweight processes called goroutines. "Run thousands of goroutines if you want - and say good-bye to stack overflows," Google says.

But more than anything else, Google plays up the speed of the language - at both compile time and run-time. "Typical builds feel instantaneous," the company says. "Even large binaries compile in just a few seconds. And the compiled code runs close to the speed of C. Go lets you move fast."

In a video trumpeting the new language, Googler Russ Cox shows off the Go math package, which includes about 1,000 lines of code across and about 20 files. It builds in about 20 milliseconds, he says, and he can test the package - which involves rebuilding and running - in under a second.

The project's developers include Unix founding father Ken Thompson; fellow Bell Labs Unix developer Rob Pike; and Robert Griesemer, known for his work on the Java HotSpot compiler. They call the language Go because, well, you know. "'Ogle' would be a good name for a Go debugger," the company says.